Method of cutting at least one thin section and tagging at least one specimen slide

Abstract

A method of cutting at least one thin section from a sample block that is arranged in a cassette and tagging at least one specimen slide such that it can be allocated to the specific sample block from which the thin section has been cut. The method includes removing a cassette from a cassette magazine; reading the machine-readable coded information of the cassette identifier; generating by at least one tagging unit a specimen slide identifier that interrelates to the cassette identifier read by the reading unit; inserting the cassette into a microtome; transferring data from the microtome to a tagging unit via a data transfer path while the cassette is inserted into the microtome; enabling tagging of the specimen slide; tagging the specimen slide by the tagging unit; and cutting the thin section and transferring it onto the specimen slide that was tagged by the tagging unit.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of cutting at least one thin section from a sample block that is arranged in a cassette and tagging at least one specimen slide such that it can be allocated to the specific sample block from which the thin section has been cut, said method comprising:
 removing a cassette from a cassette magazine by a removal unit, said cassette having a cassette identifier having at least one machine-readable coded information; 
 reading the machine-readable coded information of the cassette identifier of the cassette by at least one reading unit at a point in time of one of before, during, and after removal of the cassette from the cassette magazine; 
 generating by at least one tagging unit a specimen slide identifier that interrelates to the cassette identifier read by the reading unit, said tagging unit generating an at least machine-readable coded information for identification of the specimen slide; 
 inserting the cassette into a microtome; 
 transferring data from the microtome to a tagging unit via a data transfer path while the cassette is inserted into the microtome; 
 enabling tagging of the specimen slide by the tagging unit by applying the machine-readable coded information for identifying the specimen slide onto the specimen slide only after having transferred data from the microtome to the tagging unit; 
 tagging the specimen slide by the tagging unit by applying the machine-readable coded information for identifying the specimen slide onto the specimen slide; and 
 cutting the thin section and transferring it onto the specimen slide that was tagged by the tagging unit. 
 
     
     
       2. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising choosing the machine-readable coded information of the specimen slide identifier such that it comprises at least a portion of the information that is coded in the cassette identifier. 
     
     
       3. The method according to  claim 2 , further comprising choosing the specimen slide identifier such that it comprises the cassette identifier. 
     
     
       4. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising tagging multiple specimen slides by the tagging unit such that each of the multiple specimen slides has a specimen slide identifier that depends on the cassette identifier that is read by the reading unit. 
     
     
       5. The method according to  claim 4 , further comprising choosing the machine-readable coded information of the specimen slide identifiers such that these comprise at least a portion of the information coded in the cassette identifier, and choosing the specimen slide identifier of each specimen slide so that the respective specimen slide identifier comprises additional information for distinguishing between the multiple specimen slides allocated to one cassette. 
     
     
       6. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising storing specimen slides in at least one specimen slide storage region that is adapted to receive a plurality of specimen slides, and automatically and individually removing the specimen slides from the specimen slide storage region and delivering these specimen slides to the tagging unit. 
     
     
       7. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising removing a cassette from the cassette magazine by a removal unit by at least one of manual removal, semi-automatic removal, and fully automatic removal. 
     
     
       8. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising cooling the cassettes by a cooling unit while the cassette magazine is in the receiving region. 
     
     
       9. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising reducing heat exchange between a sample block present in a cassette of the cassette magazine and the environment by elements of a thermal insulation system of the receiving region. 
     
     
       10. The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising storing the number of specimen slides that are to be tagged for a respective cassette in at least one database.